Thursday, February 24, 2011

Sausage in tomato sauce: a Sicilian way to taste sausage

Do you know how to cook Sicilian sausage in tomato sauce? It's very easy and it will take you about 40 minutes at the most. You will only need: 1 kg Sicilian sausage - tomato sauce - olive oil

In Sicily sausage is called "sasizza" and butchers prepare it binding the sausages all together with some kitchen string making one big long sausage.

First of all what we normally do is to roll it up using some thin wooden sticks (just like shown in the picture here). After that you have to cook it either in the oven or in a pan. Cooking time is similar.

If you choose the oven put it at 180°c for about 15-20 minutes, while in the frying pan add a little bit of water. At half cooking time stick a fork on the meat all around the sausages. This is a very important step because it helps eliminate the fat inside.

In the meantime, put on a medium heat, a sauce-pan with tomato sauce. Adjust with salt, sugar and spices if needed. Don't overdo with the spices as this kind of sausage is already very tasty.

When the sausage is cooked and the tomato sauce is about to bubble, you can transfer the sausage in the sauce pan, lower the heat and let cook with a lit for about 10 more minutes. Finally add some olive oil and serve hot.

This dish is very common in Sicily, especially if you cooked sausages the day before and you have some left over that want to re-use. We also have it as a delicious tasty sauce for our pasta at lunch time. You only need to cut the sausage in smaller pieces. These are absolutely the best ways to enjoy this great dish!